Publications: Weapons Cleanup Monitor

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 Ohio Senator Rob Portman (R) pushed the Obama Administration’s choice to serve as the next No. 2 official in the Department of Energy this week on the need for adequate funding for the Portsmouth D&D project in his home state. Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, has recently issued notices warning that as […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 Rep. Brian Higgins (D-N.Y.) is calling on the Department of Energy to perform an Environmental Impact Statement before moving forward with a plan to ship liquid HEU from Canada to the Savannah River Site. DOE is looking to ship approximately 23,000 liters of U.S.-origin material from Atomic Energy of Canada […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 As the investigation continues into the cause of the radiological release that shut down the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz is set to travel to Carlsbad, N.M., next month. New Mexico Senators Tom Udall (D) and Martin Heinrich (D), along with Rep. Steve Pearce (R), announced […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 A team led by Fluor won the Department of Energy’s new task order to provide deactivation services at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant this week. The Fluor team, which also includes CB&I and LATA, beat out a team of led by AECOM for the new contract, estimated to be worth […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 Senate appropriators want to reverse the Obama Administration’s proposed funding cut for Hanford in Fiscal Year 2015, according to additional details released this week of the Senate version of the FY 2015 Energy and Water Appropriations bill. Work managed by the DOE Richland Operations Office at Hanford came in for […]

Department to Extend Credit Monitoring Service for Another Year Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 Approximately a year after a significant cyber security breach at the Department of Energy put the personal information of thousands of people at risk, there have been no signs of misuse of data, according to the Department. The breach, which occurred […]

Sen. Graham, Gov. Haley also Expected to Join Tour of Site Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 7/25/2014 Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz and National Nuclear Security Administration chief Frank Klotz will make a trip to the Savannah River Site on July 28, touring the site’s H Tank Farm and H-Canyon facility among other projects at the site. […]

Jeremy L. Dillon WC Monitor 7/25/2014 In a move that could aid the Department of Energy’s cleanup program in tackling difficult waste, Waste Control Specialists filed a petition for rulemaking earlier this week with the Texas Commission of Environmental Quality to allow the disposal of some transuranic waste and Greater-than-Class-C waste in its federal facility. […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 7/25/2014 The Department of Energy’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management has selected three teams to provide project management support services, including teams led by two incumbent contractors. WC Monitor has learned that teams led by incumbents TechSource and Longenecker & Associates as well as relative newcomer MOCA Systems, a Newton, […]

Nuclear Management Partners Names New Chair Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/25/2014 Senior URS executive Tom Bishop has been named the new Chair of Nuclear Management Partners, the parent body organization for Sellafield Ltd. Bishop, who manages URS’ European operations, replaces Tom Zarges, who served as NMP Chair for the first five years of its contract […]

DOE Reduces Scope of Transportation Contract WC Monitor 7/25/2014 With operations at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant shut down for the foreseeable future, the Department of Energy has moved to reduce the workscope of one of its two contractors tasked with transporting waste to the facility. Visionary Solutions has cut the number of its two-person […]

SRNL Vapor Team Makes First Visit to Hanford WC Monitor 7/25/2014 The Hanford Tank Vapor Assessment Team led by the Savannah River National Laboratory arrived late this week for its first visit to Hanford. The team has work planned through July 29 that will include tours, briefings, procedure reviews, observation of work at the tank […]

CHPRC Seeking Companies to Perform Construction Support Services WC Monitor 7/25/2014 CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. is seeking companies to perform “safety significant” construction support services. Late this week, CHPRC issued a Request for Proposals for a planned set of multiple basic ordering agreements to facilitate the award of “NQA-1/Safety Significant services” to be performed […]

DOE Completes Sludge Drum Treatment Campaign WC Monitor 7/25/2014 The Department of Energy and its two main cleanup contractors at the Idaho site have wrapped up a project to prepare thousands of drums of sludge waste for eventual disposal at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant. The project, which began in November 2012, addressed 6,000 drums […]

DOE Says 700,000 Pounds of Mercury Released at Y-12 WC Monitor 7/25/2014 The Department of Energy has released new mercury numbers that give some additional insight into the size and scope of mercury cleanup at the Y-12 National Security Complex. The amount of mercury released during the Cold War lithium operations at Y-12 has been […]

WC Monitor 7/25/2014 IN THE INDUSTRY Washington Closure Hanford has named Kliss McNeal as its new Director of the Environmental, Safety, Health & Quality, and Closure Manager. She replaces Bruce Covert, who has accepted an offer to serve as the URS lead manager with Dounreay Site Restoration in the United Kingdom, according to Washington Closure. […]

Legal Fight Continues Over Use of Uranium Transfers to Help Fund Work Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/18/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, officially announced this week plans to cut the workforce at the Portsmouth D&D project by approximately one-third due to budget issues. As WC Monitor first reported in late June, FBP is looking to eliminate a […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/18/2014 As some cleanup work at the Savannah River Site is winding down, the site’s managing contractor, Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, is looking to emphasize the role SRS facilities can play in future national security and nonproliferation missions, new SRNS President Carol Johnson told WC Monitor in a recent interview. A […]

New Task Force To Look at Ways to Improve EM Tech. Development Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/18/2014 Efforts to develop new cleanup-related technologies could be aided through the creation of a program similar to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Savannah River National Laboratory Director Terry Michalske said this week. Michalske outlined what he […]

Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/18/2014 In a move that could have a significant impact for the Department of Energy marketplace, AECOM Technology Corp. is looking to purchase URS in a deal worth approximately $6 billion. The purchase, announced early this week, would involve AECOM acquiring all outstanding URS shares for $4 billion and assuming about […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/18/2014 URS appears set to seek reimbursement for more than $650,000 in costs for having one of its executives testify before Congress on whistleblowers at Hanford, according to information the Department of Energy sent a Senate subcommittee last week. The question of whether or not URS would seek reimbursement for the […]

DOE Opens Enforcement Investigation Into Asbestos Concerns Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/18/2014 Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, the D&D contractor for the Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant, recently terminated an employee over a new instance of data falsification. The move marks the second time in slightly over a year where FBP has fired employees for falsifying information on […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/18/2014 The Department of Energy imposed the maximum possible fee reduction when it chose to cut the amount of fee Nuclear Waste Partnership can earn this fiscal year by 25 percent in response to the fire that occurred in early February at the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant, according to information DOE […]

Mike Nartker WC Monitor 7/18/2014 The Department of Energy and Washington state agreed this week to a new round of talks on how to modify a 2010 Consent Decree that governs the cleanup of Hanford’s tank waste. The two sides will now continue negotiations until Sept. 5, after two previous deadlines in June for coming […]

Todd Jacobson WC Monitor 7/18/2014 The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board has closed a 2004 recommendation that called on the Department of Energy to strengthen active confinement ventilation systems at National Nuclear Security Administration and Office of Environmental Management sites. When it first drafted the recommendation, the Board was concerned that DOE was relying on […]

Sellafield Making Headway on Sludge Plants Kenneth Fletcher WC Monitor 7/18/2014 After decades of having radioactive sludge sitting in unlined open air ponds at Sellafield, the site is commissioning two new plants aimed at removing and processing the material.  Site license company Sellafield Ltd. recently completed construction of the £240 million ($412 million) Sludge Packaging […]

DOE Faces Skepticism Over Hanford Tank Vapor Concerns WC Monitor 7/18/2014 Current and former workers at a meeting the watchdog group Hanford Challenge hosted this week on chemical vapors were skeptical that the Department of Energy really knows what workers are exposed to at the Hanford tank farms. Hanford officials have said sampling has found […]

PNNL Director Kluse to Retire Next Spring WC Monitor 7/18/2014 Mike Kluse, the director of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, has announced plans to retire March 31, 2015, after leading the lab since being named interim director in January 2007 and permanent director in May 2008. Battelle will begin a national search for a new director […]